Monday, October 22, 2012

US Political Fund-Raising: Legalized Corruption

A few weeks ago, Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Policy keynoted a conference I helped organize. Among those in demand for such addresses, worldwide, there
are few speakers who are more masterful and evocative.

Dean Mahbubani’s theme was the need for global leadership. His talk enumerated a litany of problems that
global leadership needs to address, one of the most pernicious of which is is
corruption. Corruption, Dean Mahbubani suggested, is endemic in many nations and
always socially corrosive. In the
United States, too, he observed, corruption is endemic, but there is a
difference: corruption in the US is legal.

I was reminded of his speech last Saturday morning as I was listening to
a news story on US Presidential campaign fund raising. Each campaign, the analyst noted, will
have raised and spent more than $US one billion in contributions. Moreover, this sum excludes the secret,
unreported contributions that were made legal by a recent US Supreme Court
decision in the “Citizens United” case.
Why would a contributing individual or organization want their
contributions to remain unreported, the analyst asked?

The answer he offered was this:
“Individuals and organizations do not write multi-million dollar checks
without expecting something in return.”
The “something” obviously is preferential treatment from government,
providing value- added substantially I excess of the funds given. Private funds, in other words, are
given as payment for public goods that will benefit the giver at the expense of
average citizens – that is most citizens – with few or no funds to give.

Are US political leaders legitimately standing on moral high-ground when
they criticize countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, Berlusconi’s Italy,
Chavez’s Venezuela, India, China and the like for corruption. This year’s presidential campaign
fund-raising highlights the hypocrisy of such posturing. Corruption is a worldwide problem, as
Dean Mahbubani has emphasized. The
only difference between my country and more overtly corrupt nations is that in
the United States of America, corruption is legal.

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About Me

Dormgrandpop is Professor John Richardson. Presently, I am Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore, with joint appointments in “Residential College 4” and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. .
I choose the name “Dormgrandpop” when I began writing this blog in 2004. This was two years after bginning what became a nearly ten year term as American University’s first resident faculty member, occupying an apartment in AU’s largest undergraduate dormitory, Anderson Hall. The name seemed to capture my concept of a faculty member in residence’s role well. Grandparents (we hope) care for their grandchildren and are loved, but rarely involved in discipline. Whether I achieved this goal is for others to decide. A fall 2010 articledescribing my role in AU’s student newspaper, The Eagle, was entitled, “The Nicest Guy at AU?” This encouraged me to believe I might have succeeded at least to some degree.
Since settling in Singapore, I have taken a break from my Dormgrandpop postings. Now I hope to resume. I have been considering and receiving advice on whether I should adopt a new name. Any thoughts or suggestions?